


From Hardship Born

by yopumpkinhead



Category: Books of the Raksura - Martha Wells
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 08:04:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2805476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yopumpkinhead/pseuds/yopumpkinhead
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ember finds his place in Indigo Cloud.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From Hardship Born

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nary](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nary/gifts).



> Ember is a tricky character to write, since we see so little of him in the books. What we do see shows that he's sweet and gentle, almost timid - yet from the other consorts we see (aside from Moon), being a consort to a Raksuran queen requires a great deal of inner strength. I suspect that's what Pearl saw in him: a potential for strength and confidence which she can mold and use to her advantage. And, being raised a consort, Ember is ready and willing to grow into that role.

There were days when Ember could pretend his life was normal, that he was an ordinary consort to an ordinary queen in an ordinary court, doing ordinary things like advising his queen, assisting her during meetings with members of other courts, and maybe trying for a clutch.

Today was not one of those days.

He’d had high hopes for the day; it had started when Pearl nuzzled him awake in her bower, her tail curling pointedly around his thigh. Rather later they’d actually got up to go meet with the Arbora about which crops to plant where, and whether it would make more sense to trade with the other courts for certain things instead of trying to produce them themselves. Pearl normally didn’t like to deal with such mundanities, but Jade had gone to Opal Night several weeks ago, along with Moon and a contingent of Arbora and warriors, to deliver trade goods and negotiate for more (and prove to Malachite that Moon was perfectly fine). Ember didn’t mind, though - it was in these sorts of meetings that he felt least like an outsider in the court.

Despite its attempts to ally with other courts, Indigo Cloud was insular even by the standards of the Raksura, due to the time it had spent fighting for survival outside the Reaches. While most of the court treated Ember well enough now, it was hard to forget how they’d looked at him when Tempest had first brought him here. He hadn’t really understood, at the time, how the majority of the court felt about Moon - but it had been painfully clear that they hadn’t wanted Ember. The first few weeks had been miserable; he’d spent most of the time hiding in the bower they’d assigned him, too afraid to approach Jade or Pearl, too ashamed of his own cowardice to even go down to the teachers’ level as Moon had suggested.

It had been Pearl who’d come to him in the end, slipping into the room while his back was turned. He’d been so startled to see her that he nearly dropped the teakettle he was holding; only years of practice kept it in his hands. She’d watched him with an expression he couldn’t read, and he’d composed himself as quickly as he could. Terrified or not, unwanted or not, he was still a consort of Emerald Twilight, from the bloodline of Tempest and Fade, and he didn’t want to embarrass his birthcourt any more than he already had. He had managed to offer her a mug of the tea he’d been making, at which point she’d surprised him by saying, “Tell me what you know of Opal Night.”

They’d talked for hours, settled against the hearth in his bower and drinking tea. Alone with him, away from any other queens and the court, Pearl was amazingly gentle. She carried a grace and a calm that the younger queens didn’t have, a confidence in her place in her court that in turn put Ember more at ease. When she’d finally asked him to join her in her own bower, he hadn’t hesitated a moment.

He’d been worried, at first, how Jade would react to Pearl taking him, but Pearl said it wouldn’t be a problem, and she’d been right. Jade herself only had eyes for Moon, and the rest of the court mostly seemed glad that Pearl finally had a proper consort again. And while nothing was ever said openly about it, Ember also suspected that more than a few of them - including, oddly, Moon - were glad he was there to model correct consort behavior.

Since Moon already had a handle on teaching the fledglings, and the Arbora tended to complain to him first, Ember focused instead on helping Pearl strengthen Indigo Cloud’s place in the Reaches. He had spent a great deal of time, back in Emerald Twilight, learning the politics of the Reaches in anticipation of being chosen by a queen, and now he drew on that knowledge to support Pearl. He kept in contact with his clutchmates and friends in Emerald Twilight, as well as the few friends he’d made in other courts, staying up to date on the latest news of alliances and trades and snubs. And while Pearl might be too proud to admit it, he knew she relied heavily on his expertise.

After the meeting with the Arbora, Ember had spent half the afternoon writing letters to be carried with the next trading delegation, before Pearl had summoned him again to attend her in a meeting with representatives from Starlight Gleam. They were a small court from the far south of the Reaches, angling for an alliance with Opal Night by way of Indigo Cloud, and Pearl, along with Heart, Bell, Knell, and Bone, had been negotiating with their sister queen for several days now. They were even getting close to an agreement that would benefit both courts and result in an influx of trade goods for the Arbora.

So of course that was when Root burst frantically into the room and shouted, “We need Heart! Jade’s been injured!”

***

Over the remainder of the day, in between helping Floret placate the Starlight Gleam sister queen, trying to calm Pearl down, and keeping the Arbora in check, Ember pieced together what had happened. Apparently Jade’s group had been on its way back from Opal Night when they’d spotted some of the Indigo Cloud warriors patrolling near the edge of the court’s territory. They’d stopped to say hello and let the Arbora stretch their legs for a few minutes - and the biggest white tentacle beast anyone had ever seen had surged up from the platform beneath them, grabbed two Arbora and a warrior, and tried to make its escape. Moon had gone after it, and of course Jade had gone after him, and by the time everyone else had caught up, Jade was unconscious and Moon was tearing the beast to pieces.

“I should have let Opal Night keep him,” Pearl growled. She was pacing back and forth in front of the hearth in her bower, spines stiff and tail lashing dangerously close to the tea Ember was preparing. “He’s a terrible influence. What if she’d been _killed_?”

Ember didn’t say anything. He might not agree with Moon acting like a warrior half the time, but the warriors and Arbora who’d been there all swore that Moon had saved the lives of the three Raksura grabbed by the beast. It was hard to argue with the fact that for all he was terrible at being a consort, Moon was very good at keeping those around him alive. He’d been the one who had rushed Jade back to the colony despite several ugly wounds of his own, and Ember had overheard Heart telling Balm that if Moon hadn’t got her to the mentors so quickly, she would be in much worse shape.

Pearl spun around and stalked back across the room. She was growling under her breath, a low extended rumble, and her fangs were showing. Ember caught her gaze, patted the cushion beside him, and said gently, “Come sit down.”

For a moment Pearl didn’t move, still bristling with fury and, underneath it, fear; then abruptly her spines sagged and her wings drooped. She shifted to her Arbora form and dropped onto the cushion, taking the mug of tea Ember offered. “I should trade him to groundlings for grain,” she muttered. “I should chain him in Jade’s bower until he can behave himself. I should…”

Ember tuned her out, waiting until she’d grumbled herself into silence before curling against her side and nuzzling her shoulder. “Heart says Jade will recover fine,” he reminded her.

Pearl snorted eloquently. “Of course she will. But she never should have been injured in the first place.”

“She's a queen,” Ember said. “She would have gone after that thing whether or not Moon was there.” He didn't add that it was really only Moon's years of being a solitary that had given him the reflexes to beat Jade - a queen experienced in battle - to the attack; it wasn't the point and he didn't want Pearl thinking too much about Moon, not when she was in a mood to blame him for everything.

“I know,” Pearl said, and sighed. Her spines rippled, then settled, and Ember knew she had put the issue aside. The Arbora called her mercurial, unpredictable; Ember had learned early on that you could predict her if you paid close enough attention - it was just that since her previous consort had died, she hadn't let anyone get close enough. She asked, “Was Floret able to soothe the Starlight Gleam delegation?”

Ember nodded. “They understand. Floret said their queen even seemed impressed that Jade and Moon were able to kill the beast by themselves. Apparently their court just tries to avoid them.”

Pearl looked thoughtful for a moment, and Ember remembered again that her court had survived a Fell attack. Some of them had survived multiple Fell attacks. Indigo Cloud might be small, and all but one of its members new to the Reaches, but they were not nearly as weak as most of the other courts believed. It was something else he needed to remember, to take into account when he was talking with the Arbora and the warriors, when he was advising Pearl.

For now, though, he just said, “Floret said they still want an alliance, so I asked the Arbora to prepare another meal tomorrow to finalize the agreement.”

“Good,” Pearl said. “Then they can go back to their own court. I'm tired of playing host.”

Ember smiled. Predictable, indeed. He refilled her tea, then let her tuck him more firmly against her side. “Heart said Jade should wake up from the healing sleep sometime tomorrow,” he said. “If she’s feeling well enough, you could ask her to join you at the farewell ceremony the day after.”

Pearl smiled, too, just a little - the first she’d done so since Root had interrupted the meeting with Starlight Gleam. “You think she’ll make an impression.”

“I think she’ll remind the other courts just what Indigo Cloud is capable of,” Ember said.

“Good,” Pearl said again, softer. There was steel in her voice, and Ember thought again of all that her court had been through. Pearl might be capricious, sometimes petty, always prickly - but she was determined to do the best for her court, no matter what it took.

And Ember was determined to help her.


End file.
